The Bolles School is an American private college preparatory day and boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. It has a lower school (including pre-kindergarten), a middle school, and a high school, spread across four campuses around the Jacksonville area, and enrolls about 1,800 students a year. The school was founded in 1933 as an all-boys military academy. It dropped its military focus in 1962 and became coeducational in 1971. Its athletics programs have been recognized as some of the best in the Florida High School Athletic Association by Sports Illustrated magazine.
History
The school was founded as an all-boys' military academy in 1933 by Agnes Cain Painter, a friend of philanthropist Richard J. Bolles. The original campus, now known as the San Jose Campus, was founded in a former hotel on San Jose Boulevard near the east bank of the St. Johns River. Bolles announced that it would drop its military status in 1961 and the graduating class of 1962 ended the military era. It began admitting girls in 1971. Today, male and female students are enrolled in relatively equal numbers.
International students have enrolled at Bolles since the late 1930s, and the school maintains separate boys and girls boarding facilities for 90 students from other states and 22 foreign counties. The school also has an active Student exchange program with schools in Japan, France and Spain. Participants live with the host family while attending school.
John E. Trainer, Jr. served as the sixth Bolles President/Headmaster from 2002 until 2012 and oversaw growth of the Bartram campus, creation of an elementary school in Ponte Vedra Beach, and boosting the schools endowment. He was succeeded by Brian E. M. Johnson for the 2012-13 school year, who was succeeded by Bradley R. Johnson '79, who was succeeded by the current Head of School David J. Farace.
The school's campuses include:
- Upper School (grades 9-12) - San Jose Campus (Jacksonville)
- Middle School (6-8) - Bartram Campus (Jacksonville)
- Lower School (pre-kindergarten-5) - Ponte Vedra (Ponte Vedra Beach) & Whitehurst (Jacksonville) Campuses
Recognition
- In October 2016, Bolles was named "The most beautiful high school in Florida, by Aceable.com.
- In September of 2016, Southern Living magazine named Bolles 'One of the South's most beautiful High Schools.
- In September of 2015, Bolles was ranked fifth in the nation on Town & Country magazine's list of "19 Boarding Schools That Look More Like Relais & Châteaux Properties Than High School Campuses."
Academics
Bolles has been a fully accredited Florida high school since 1934. Bolles operates on a two-semester academic year, with each semester split into two quarters.
Bolles offers Advanced Placement courses in:
Art
Bolles offers arts programs.
Athletics
In 2005, Sports Illustrated named Bolles's athletic program the ninth best in the country, and second best in Florida. Of the top twenty-five schools, Bolles was the only one with an Upper School enrollment of under 1,000 students. Bolles has received the Florida High School Athletic Association's Dodge Sunshine Cup/Floyd E. Lay All-Sports Award (given to the best overall athletic program in each school type/size classification in Florida) for 21 of the past 22 years, including the past eleven consecutive years. During the 2015-2016 school year, Bolles won 7 different Florida State Championships, including boys swimming, girls swimming, girls cross country, boys basketball, girls soccer, girls track and field, and baseball, bringing the school's all-time State Championship total to 123.
The outdoor field where it seven outdoor sports teams practice is called "George H. Hodges Field" and in 2016 it was converted to an artificial turf.
The swim team has been coached by Gregg Troy, current head coach at the University of Florida, and 2012 US Olympic men's team head coach. Troy was followed as head coach by Olympic medalist Sergio Lopez until 2014 when Lopez left to become the Singapore National team head coach. The current Bolles coach is former Olympic swimmer Jon Sakovich. The school's swimming facility has its own offices, weight room (separate from the weightroom that the rest of the school uses), and two swimming pools (one Olympic-sized). As of 2016, the boys swim team has won 29 consecutive Florida State championships and 8 National Championships, while the girls team has won 26 consecutive State Championships and 9 different National titles. Bolles has had at least one alumnus or student competing in every summer Olympics since 1972, including Gold Medal winners Ryan Murphy, and Joseph Schooling in the recent 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer games. The Bolles Sharks, Bolles's club swim team, compete and practice year-round.
Since 1989, the school's football team has been coached by Charles "Corky" Rogers, the all-time winningest Florida high school football coach with 465 wins, and has won eleven state championships, ten under Rogers. As of Nov 2016, Rogers has compiled a record of 324-45 during his tenure at the school, and has led Bolles to the State Championship game in 6 of the last 8 years, resulting in 3 Championships and 3 runner-up finishes. For the 2009 season, the Bulldogs went 12-1, losing only to Cocoa High School, 44-37 in overtime. They defeated Tampa Catholic in the state championship game on December 12, 21-7.
Activities
The school's drama program performs a musical every second year and a Shakespeare play every third year. Performing groups include Jazz Ensemble, Stage Band, Choir, Choral Music and Dance.
Notable alumni
See also
- List of high schools in Florida
References
External links
- bolles.org, the school's official website
- The Association of Boarding Schools profile